Sotio reveals its ADC hand

Sotio, a Czech biotech quietly building a presence in antibody-drug conjugates, has shed a little more light on its approach, disclosing that a MAb recently licensed from Biocytogen for development as an ADC targets CDH17. The project in question, SOT109, is still preclinical, but Sotio aims to file an IND for it in the second half of next year. In mid-2024 the company signed a discovery alliance with China's Biocytogen, and followed this up in January with a deal giving it rights specifically to the MAb that will be developed as an ADC as SOT109. CDH17 is reportedly restricted to intestinal adherent junctions, where it's not accessible in healthy individuals, but it becomes overexpressed and reachable in over half of gastric and pancreatic cancer patients, and in more than 95% of those with colorectal cancer. However, it has tended to be targeted with Car-T therapies, including Chimeric Therapeutics' CHM 2101. According to OncologyPipeline there are only two anti-CDH17 ADCs in clinical development. Sotio has separate tie-ups with Lonza for the Synaffix technology in SOT109, and with LegoChem for SOT106 (anti-LRRC15), but the phase 1 trial of an NBE-Therapeutics-derived anti-Claudin18.2 ADC, SOT102, was terminated in January.

ADCs against CDH17

Note: *biparatopic ADC. Source: OncologyPipeline.